Lately, I've listened quite a lot to a Swedish band called Sabaton (I'll write about their concert as soon as I'm done with this). They play mostly about 2nd world war and its battles and heroes. A bit earlier on I was reading an interview with Joakim Brodén, the vocalist, interview in which he said something which went along the lines of how history, if not properly known, tends to repeat itself. A thing which, apart being completely true, reminded me of a discussion I've had a couple of months ago with this lady here.
I don't really remember how the whole thing was brought into attention (I think it was during a class, correct me if I'm wrong), but what she said went along the lines of "the best way of keeping history from repeating itself is to hide it from the children, so that they do not know about the problems in the past."
I remember being as scandalized about her statement as I am now, remembering it, but it was a time when I did not write in here and, shame on me, it had faded into oblivion until today. I will start by saying that there have been these kind of opposition discussions since that one, between me and her, and I can't stop noticing we rarely if ever come to an agreement. But that is not the issue here and I will try to make this post as impersonal as I can.
Thing is, what this lady here was saying was, practically, to deny our whole history and hide it from our kids, as if it never were. Besides the obvious 1984 link (although I deeply doubt she's ever as so much as heard of the book), the implications have much more serious grounds.
First of all, denying and erasing one's history is a clear manifestation of dictatorship, of trying to manipulate ideas and feelings (not that it doesn't happen as it is in this "democratic" world of ours) into your own interests.
Second, history tends to repeat itself more often when it is unknown and therefore can't serve as a model and warning. Hell, history has repeated itself even when similar precedent events were well-known, let's take Hitler's failure into Russia, like Napoleon before him, as an example. Not that I complain about that one, though.
Knowing your own history also has a lot to do with respect and paying homage to those that have influenced it in a good way. My great-great granddad fought the First War. My great-granddad, the Second. I have never met them, but I've been told about them and their being prisoners during the conflict. They haven't single-handedly saved a whole village nor defeated an enemy battalion. But they are, just like their brothers in arms, of whom not all have returned from the war, a hero on their own level. It is simple soldiers that make a war. And denying everything will make their deaths even less meaningful than they already are.
Let me get this straight, I do not glorify war in any way. Most of the times, it is an useless, ambition-driven conflict that claims too many lives over too unimportant things. But as much as I hate it, once it's happened one can't simply throw it aside like a dirty sock, because if that is the case then all that have fought it are simply denied their own existence.
So, dear lady, instead of preaching me about how we should lie to our children, you'd better teach yours to accept, not hide under the rug that which has already happened, to love and tolerate. This ain't no fucking hippie message. It's a simple truth. People have to be taught to put differences aside, not sheltered from painful realities. But then again, you, lady, don't really seem too good with tolerance yourself, do you?
I don't really remember how the whole thing was brought into attention (I think it was during a class, correct me if I'm wrong), but what she said went along the lines of "the best way of keeping history from repeating itself is to hide it from the children, so that they do not know about the problems in the past."
I remember being as scandalized about her statement as I am now, remembering it, but it was a time when I did not write in here and, shame on me, it had faded into oblivion until today. I will start by saying that there have been these kind of opposition discussions since that one, between me and her, and I can't stop noticing we rarely if ever come to an agreement. But that is not the issue here and I will try to make this post as impersonal as I can.
Thing is, what this lady here was saying was, practically, to deny our whole history and hide it from our kids, as if it never were. Besides the obvious 1984 link (although I deeply doubt she's ever as so much as heard of the book), the implications have much more serious grounds.
First of all, denying and erasing one's history is a clear manifestation of dictatorship, of trying to manipulate ideas and feelings (not that it doesn't happen as it is in this "democratic" world of ours) into your own interests.
Second, history tends to repeat itself more often when it is unknown and therefore can't serve as a model and warning. Hell, history has repeated itself even when similar precedent events were well-known, let's take Hitler's failure into Russia, like Napoleon before him, as an example. Not that I complain about that one, though.
Knowing your own history also has a lot to do with respect and paying homage to those that have influenced it in a good way. My great-great granddad fought the First War. My great-granddad, the Second. I have never met them, but I've been told about them and their being prisoners during the conflict. They haven't single-handedly saved a whole village nor defeated an enemy battalion. But they are, just like their brothers in arms, of whom not all have returned from the war, a hero on their own level. It is simple soldiers that make a war. And denying everything will make their deaths even less meaningful than they already are.
Let me get this straight, I do not glorify war in any way. Most of the times, it is an useless, ambition-driven conflict that claims too many lives over too unimportant things. But as much as I hate it, once it's happened one can't simply throw it aside like a dirty sock, because if that is the case then all that have fought it are simply denied their own existence.
So, dear lady, instead of preaching me about how we should lie to our children, you'd better teach yours to accept, not hide under the rug that which has already happened, to love and tolerate. This ain't no fucking hippie message. It's a simple truth. People have to be taught to put differences aside, not sheltered from painful realities. But then again, you, lady, don't really seem too good with tolerance yourself, do you?
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